For the past few days, I have attended safety training, hosted by both Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) and the Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS) as a function of the American Institute for Chemical Engineers (AIChE). This training took place in Decatur, IL, and was offered to college professors who teach chemical engineering.

The training began Monday night and went through Thursday at lunch time. Included in this training were several plant tours, and quite a few invited talks.

On Monday night, there was a dinner, a talk on why this training is available, and a meet and greet among the other attendees. Both of the speakers were leaders of this course, and had both known people in their plants who were killed in industrial accidents.

On Tuesday, there were several lectures, including lectures on Layers of Protection Analysis (LOPA) and Job Safety Analysis (JSA). We toured their research labs, and then had dinner at a culinary arts school nearby.

Wednesday was spent in the bioprocessing facility, where dextrose, lysine, bioethanol and xanthan gum were made. We toured the fermenters, the ammonia filling station, and even got to watch them do a foam test. The foam test is a test of the fire suppression system for the rail cars, and is conducted about once every three years, so it was a unique experience.

We had several breakout discussion sections that were worthwhile. Most of them involved putting process safety in existing classes.

On Thursday morning, we met the author of one of the textbooks we were given, and he gave several talks as well.

Overall, it was a great event. Plant tours are always great, and hearing some of the numbers and statistics of how things are processed is enlightening (28 square miles of corn each day). Unfortunately, cameras were not permitted anywhere on any of the tours, so I have no photos.